Cross Country Season Brings New Venue, Divisions, and Rules

Doesn’t it seem like the lead in every article previewing an upcoming school season refers to changes from the year before? Of course, with seniors graduating and new runners emerging, that’s ALWAYS true. However, the Colorado high school cross country season ahead does feature some changes of the out-of-the-ordinary nature.

First off, the site for the State meet is moving for the first time in a half-dozen years. The Colorado Springs golf course that had hosted the meet will soon be razed, and a new site was chosen in the runner-friendly community of Fort Collins adjacent to Fossil Ridge High School. The new 5K course will feature more terrain variations. Like its predecessor, it’s not particularly hilly, but the competitors should have more space to maneuver rather than being confined largely to a narrow cart path as they were on the golf course. Spectators will have ample viewing opportunities from several berms along the course. The start is wide enough to allow for a clean start, and then the first mile has a “downhill feel,” according to Lyons coach Mark Roberts, “which will tempt some kids to go out hard.” The second mile winds over some more uneven, almost lumpy terrain, and then the last mile returns on the same route as the first mile, but in reverse, so it will feel “uphill.”

Middle Park coach Jim Courville says that he’s excited about the new course. “It was time for a change,” he said. On the other hand, Scott Chamberlin, Wheat Ridge’s coach, is taking more of a wait-and-see attitude. “We’ve heard that the course might be too rough on ankles and that it narrows down too quickly and might have dangerous areas. But we have not seen it, so we won’t really know until we run it.”

The other major change is the introduction of a new classification for the first time in decades. Schools will now be divided into four divisions with the addition of 2A. Each school in that class will qualify as many as five runners with the top three counting in the scoring. Also, class 3A received an additional “pusher,” now allowing six runners from each team with the top four scoring. Courville feels this will change the chemistry of the 3A meet, and the feeling among coaches like Lyons’ Roberts and Alan Versaw of Classical Academy is that teams with more depth will benefit the most, plus more kids will be excited to be in the mix for varsity spots. Classes 4A and 5A retain the “run seven, score five” format.

Vilas coach Kyle Boydstun spearheaded the years-long effort to add the 2A classification. “It gives kids from smaller schools an opportunity they didn’t have before, including improving their chances to make it to the State meet, and allows coaches to better promote the sport at those schools,” he said. Boydstun hopes it will also motivate some schools to field a team for the first time since they will only need three runners to comprise a full squad.

The new 2A classification figures to thin the 3A competition, as schools like Rocky Ford, which won last year’s 3A boys title move down. However, team leader Victor Montoya’s status for this season is uncertain according to coach Ron Shepherd, possibly damaging the Meloneers’ chance for back-to-back championships. Boydstun feels that Rocky Ford is the strongest 2A team either way, and hopes his Vilas team can give them a challenge. Center and Wiggins have boys teams that should also challenge for the first 2A boys title. With a run five, score three structure, a team with a couple of speedy siblings could have a huge advantage.

Many observers pick Classical Academy, winner of two of the last four 3A boys titles and the previous five girls 3A titles, to easily repeat as girls champs and challenge strongly for the boys’ title. Returning state champ Kaitlin Hanenberg paces an impressively deep squad. Versaw likes having the additional pusher to keep more of his girls fired up. Seniors Kelsey Brown and Kassie Mazzocco have been leading Classical’s summer workouts with an eye toward yet another win at State.

Hanenberg’s main competition for the top spot could come from the incredibly versatile Sam Berggren of Middle Park, a winner or runner-up at the State track meet this past spring as a freshman in every event from the 200 through the 1600. She broke the all-time 3A 400 meter record this season with a 55.55-second clocking, which she lowered to 55.40 in Junior Olympic competition. Courville said that Berggren continued doing quality workouts throughout the summer before taking two weeks easy before the start of formal practice on August 11. The lanky Berggren is already a humble leader of the team, who Courville says has gotten older Middle Park girls to come out for the team, whose goal is to shoot for the top five at State. Roberts feels that his daughter Melissa, a sophomore, showed during track season the potential to chase Hanenberg and Berggren this season.

The boys 3A race figures to be more wide open, possibly getting decided by teams’ fifth tie-breaker runner, feels Roberts. He says that his Lyons team has “a nucleus of four runner that gives us something to build on.” His son Andrew, the defending state champ, leads a group “that knows each other, likes each other, and after getting two second-place trophies, they’re hungry, and we’ll run like underdogs.” Behind Lyons and Classical Academy could be strong squads from La Junta, Bayfield, and Erie.

Wheat Ridge won the boys 5A crown last year, but they move down to 4A in ’08 (photo), and they are likely very strong contenders, along with Liberty, Battle Mountain, Niwot, D’Evelyn, Cherokee Trail, and Rock Canyon. The Farmers return veteran runners Dart Schwaderer, Scott Fauble, and Henry Cowhick. Coach Chamberlin feels that they need to develop some depth from their younger runners and stay healthy to “make big things happen when it counts.” D’Evelyn’s two-time champ Kevin Williams graduated, so the individual race has opened up for a very strong group of seniors led by Falcon’s gutty Wes Rickman, Denver North’s Joseph Manilafasha, and Mullen’s Andrew Berbrick.

The girls’ 4A battle hasn’t changed appreciably from last season. Defending champion Greeley West returns its top three girls – defending individual champ Erica Hinchcliffe, Ashley Smalley, and Sarah Swenson – and look to again be in a tough fight with Thompson Valley and Greeley Central for supremacy of both the Northern League and the state. Thompson Valley, with returners Becky Schmitt, Laura and Liz Tremblay, Alicia Randall, Emma Howard, Katie Biedron, and Hannah Pensack-Rinehart finished just 18 points behind West in the ’07 State meet. Coach Matt Norton feels that his girls are a special group.

“They have won a state cross country title and a state track title, so they know what it takes to tough it out. They are well-focused. If everyone stays healthy, we have as good a chance as anyone.”

The Eagles made getting fitter and faster their priority during the off-season, competing at the Nike Team Southwest Regional (where they placed 6th behind both Fort Collins and Greeley West) and doing benchmark workouts to gauge their progress. Outside those Northern League rivals, look for Alamosa, Summit, Mullen, Cheyenne Mountain, Battle Mountain, and Evergreen to make strong statements this season.

The Dakota Ridge girls are expected to dominate the 5A girls competition. The Eagles return four girls who placed in the top 14 at last year’s State meet; Natosha Rogers, Vicky VanAlstine-Tauer, Paige Lillo, and former champ Kaitie Vanatta, who is progressing well from another bout with injury. Fort Collins’ and Palmer’s girls squads were young last year and figure to try to close the gap on Dakota Ridge. Eagles senior Alexa Rogers won last year’s individual title, but the next 13 State meet finishers are returning, which will make for an interesting battle for this year’s top spot.

Wheat Ridge’s class change leaves the boys’ 5A team race wide open. Plus, all of last year’s top State finishers lost at least two seniors. Arapahoe, Cherry Creek, Fairview, Regis, and Loveland all return at least three runners who broke 18:00 at last year’s State meet. Individually, Dakota Ridge’s Evan Appel won by 16 seconds last year, but he should receive challenges from Regis’ Bobby Nicolls, Clif Campbell of Fort Collins, and Walter Schafer of Cherry Creek.

The first meets kick off the season on August 28, and now having four classes should make for eight exciting runs for the State title in Fort Collins on October 25.
- Bill Stahl, Tracy Peterson

Bill Stahl has been coaching in Colorado for 25 years. He is currently the head cross country and assistant track coach at Horizon High School. He owns a youth sports business called i9 Sports. Stahl can frequently be seen trail running to prepare for another ultramarathon or having fun running with the kids on his team.